This invention relates to the chemotherapy of bacterial infections. More particularly it relates to the chemotherapy of bacterial infections using certain new derivatives of ampicillin and amoxicillin.
Ampicillin and amoxicillin are two, well-known, penicillin antibiotics, which are widely used in medical practice today. Although both antibiotics have a reasonably broad spectrum of activity, both antibiotics suffer from the fact that they are susceptible to beta-lactamases. Accordingly both antibiotics tend to show weak activity against beta-lactamase producing microorganisms. One solution to this problem which has been developed is to co-administer a beta-lactamase inhibitor, such as penicillanic acid 1,1-dioxide (sulbactam), during a course of treatment with ampicillin or amoxicillin. See further U.S. Pat. No. 4,234,579. More recently, the antibacterial spectrum of ampicillin and amoxicillin has been expanded by making a bis-ester of methanediol, in which one of the hydroxy groups of the methanediol has been esterified using the carboxy group of ampicillin or amoxicillin, and the other hydroxy group has been esterified using the carboxy group of a beta-lactamase inhibitor such as sulbactam. See further U.S. Pat. No. 4,244,951 and published British patent application No. 2,044,255A.
In the novel antibacterial agents of the present invention, a beta-lactamase inhibitor which has a beta-lactam ring as well as a carboxy group (e.g. sulbactam) has been linked through its carboxy group to either the amino group of ampicillin, the amino group of amoxicillin or the phenolic hydroxy group of amoxicillin.